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Chertoff: Terror threat has not abated

(AP) WASHINGTON – The terrorist threat to the United States has not abated despite government steps in the past year to tighten rules for people and goods that enter the country, the nation’s chief of homeland security said Wednesday.

“The fact that we have not had a terrorist attack on this country in the last six years is not a cause for complacency or a time to celebrate,” Michael Chertoff said Wednesday during a year-end speech. “The threat is not going away. The enemy has not lost interest. And if you have doubt about it, look at yesterday’s reports about bombings in Algeria.”

Chertoff spoke a day after twin truck bombings by an affiliate of al-Qaida targeted U.N. offices and a government building in Algiers, killing at least 31 people.

In 2008, the final year of the Bush administration, Chertoff said his department plans to complete a fence along 670 miles of the nation’s southwest border, push states to issue more secure driver’s licenses, launch a plan to protect cyberspace and stabilize the department – which has seen constant change in its five years of existence.

Homeland Security was created from 22 separate agencies in response to the September 2001 terrorist attacks, and has gone through nine reorganizations.

Chertoff blamed Congress for some of what he calls the department’s “organizational churn” because Congress has refused to consolidate its oversight, despite the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation to do so.

Eighty-six congressional committees and subcommittees have some oversight of the department. Chertoff called this “a recipe for conflicting direction and constant fighting over who controls jurisdiction over what part of my agency.”

“The department has come a long way in five years, and the American people have benefited from the work it has done,” Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, said in a statement. “Am I satisfied? No.”

Chertoff’s speech sought to highlight the department’s accomplishments in 2007, such as issuing regulations to secure dangerous chemicals in facilities across the country and an agreement with the European Union to provide passenger name information for international flights.

Missing from Chertoff’s top four priorities for 2008 was emergency management, but that does not mean the department is not focused on it. Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, improving the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been at the top of the department’s agenda. “There’s no greater advocate for FEMA and its role in the department than the secretary,” Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said improvements to FEMA have been evident in the agency’s good response to the California wildfires in October and other natural disasters this past year. Collins is the top Republican on the Senate homeland security committee.

Dear ____________________:
I am a moslim living with my family in Arlington, Texas, USA. I have a desperate cry for your help. My 9-year-old son was recently assaulted in a local mosque by a Palestinian terrorist who was retaliating against me for my undercover work with the FBI years ago that helped put 40 Palestinians in federal prison. This 25-year-old Palestinian man harmed my son, causing him two broken fingers, but also causing him to become extremely fearful of adult strangers. When I sued the thug, and the mosque, in a local court, the boss of the mosque announced in the microphone of the mosque, during Ramadan, that I, Mohamed Elkharsity, had become an outlaw to moslims. The boss also asked for donations among the participants in that Ramadan service to raise $150,000.00 to defend against my lawsuit against the mosque. I previously informed the FBI that fundraising by that local mosque is actually being targeted for the support of Hamas. I am very upset because the boss of the mosque slandered and defamed my wife in her presence among the participants in the local mosque during Ramadan. Besides denouncing her, the boss told her never to worship in his mosque ever again. The boss also sent my lawyer a letter threatening us not to attend the mosque. This is a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution! This boss has a history of abusing the wives. He also has convinced the moslim community that he is a lawyer, which he is not. Furthermore, this boss is anti-semitic, and he teaches moslim youth to hate the Jewish community, which I strongly support. This boss likes his fellow moslims to call him “Ameer Almumneen”, he is a member of CAIR, and he heads every fundraising or other mosque actions. He has instilled fear in the moslim community as if this were the Gaza Strip. This boss is also fighting the economic system of the United States, because he teaches the Sharea Islamic system dealing with, for example, the financing of homes. He encourages moslims to stop dealing with mortage.com. My lawyer is scared and withdrew from my case because of possible reprisals by the Palestinian Hamas. Now I need your help to fight hatred, terrorism, and fascio-islamism. I am seeking a fearless lawyer who is not afraid to fight for my cause. I wish to hear from you by e-mail. Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Mohamed Elkharsity